AppSheet vs Power Apps for small and mid-size businesses

If you run a small or mid-size business and want to build your own internal apps, two names come up before any other: Google AppSheet and Microsoft Power Apps. Both come from companies you already trust with your email and files. Both promise that people outside IT can build tools. And both are priced in a way that is easy to underestimate once an app catches on.

This guide compares them on what matters to an owner or operations manager: what each is built for, what it costs at list price as of October 2026, who needs a license, which controls sit on higher tiers, and how the bill changes as you grow. At the end we cover a third option for teams that want to skip configuring altogether.

The short version

• If your company runs on Google Workspace, start with AppSheet. Core is included in most paid Workspace plans, according to AppSheet's pricing page.
• If your company runs on Microsoft 365, start with Power Apps. It sits inside the Microsoft ecosystem.
• On either, plan for every person who uses an app to need a license, and for one person on your team to become the expert.
• If the people with the best ideas will never learn a no-code or low-code editor, compare an AI platform where they describe the tool in plain words.

AppSheet in detail

What it is built for

AppSheet is Google's no-code app platform. No-code means you build without writing code, usually by connecting a data source such as a spreadsheet and then choosing screens, actions and rules. It suits simple data-driven apps, such as inspection forms, inventory lists and request trackers, especially for teams whose data already lives in Google Sheets.

What it costs

As listed on AppSheet's pricing page in October 2026:

• Starter: $5 per user per month.
• Core: $10 per user per month, and included in most paid Google Workspace plans.
• Enterprise Plus: $20 per user per month.

Who pays

Everyone who uses an app. AppSheet's pricing page says every app user, including guests, needs a license.

Admin and security tiers

Okta, Active Directory and OIDC sign-in, plus governance policies, are Enterprise Plus only. Governance policies are the rules a company sets for what its builders may and may not do, such as who can create apps. If you need them, price every user at $20.

Power Apps in detail

What it is built for

Power Apps is Microsoft's low-code app platform. Low-code means building involves screens, data connections and formulas, with less code than traditional development. It fits companies that live in Microsoft 365 and have someone, often an IT lead or analyst, who will own the platform.

What it costs

As listed by Microsoft in October 2026:

• Premium: $20.00 per user per month, paid yearly.
• Pay-as-you-go: $10 per active user per app per month, according to Microsoft Learn. Because the charge is per app, one person using three apps counts three times.
• Per app plan: Microsoft Learn says it has not been available to new customers through some purchasing channels since January 2, 2026.

Who pays

Everyone who runs an app. Microsoft's pricing page says the people who run the apps need a license, not only the people who build them.

Security history

In August 2021, UpGuard reported 38 million records exposed across 47 Power Apps portals. Microsoft first called the behavior "by design." It is an old incident, and still a useful reminder that defaults matter: when a setting decides whether data is public, someone on your team has to know to check it.

Head to head

All prices as listed on AppSheet's and Microsoft's pricing pages and Microsoft Learn in October 2026.

What it costs as you grow

Here are examples using list prices only. Assume every employee uses at least one app, and a few people build. For Power Apps pay-as-you-go, assume each person uses two apps. For FORGE, assume one builder for every ten or so people.

Your real numbers depend on your agreements, which plan you need and how many apps each person uses. The structural point holds at every size: AppSheet and Power Apps grow with headcount, while FORGE grows with the number of people who build.

If AppSheet Core is already part of your Workspace plan, it can look free. Two things change that. First, the moment you need Enterprise Plus sign-in or governance policies, every user moves to $20. Second, the cost of the person who builds the apps does not appear on the invoice, but it is real.

Where both struggle for small and mid-size teams

The expert bottleneck

Both platforms are far easier than traditional development, and both still ask the builder to think like a designer of data and rules. In most small companies, one person learns the platform well, and requests queue behind them.

Rationed access

Per-user licensing makes managers decide who gets the tool. The technician in the field, the seasonal worker and the part-time bookkeeper are often left out, and the tool that was meant to replace the spreadsheet ends up living beside it.

Shadow tools fill the gap

When the official platform is slow, people find their own way. PagerDuty's June 2026 survey with Wakefield found that two-thirds of office professionals who use AI at work have used AI tools they believed were not permitted. AI use itself is still spreading: as of May 2026, Gallup reports 15% of U.S. employees use AI daily and 30% a few times a week or more. A platform that only a few people can use pushes everyone else toward tools you cannot see.

One tool, three ways

To make the difference concrete, here is an example: a weekly vehicle inspection app for a company with twelve trucks. Drivers check tires, lights and fluids, add a photo of anything wrong, and sign. The fleet manager sees which trucks failed and assigns the repair.

On AppSheet, the builder starts with a spreadsheet: one sheet for trucks, one for inspections, one for repairs. The builder connects that data to AppSheet, then lays out the screens, adds the photo field, sets up the rule that flags a failed inspection, and decides who sees what. Someone comfortable with spreadsheets can get a long way in an afternoon, and the details (who can edit an inspection after it is signed, what happens when a truck is sold) take longer. Every driver needs a license.

On Power Apps, the builder sets up the data, designs the screens, writes the formulas behind the pass and fail logic, and configures who can see which records. A builder comfortable with formulas moves quickly. Every driver needs a license here too.

On a business AI platform, the fleet manager writes what the paragraph above says, in her own words, and reviews a working app. When she wants a change, such as adding a mileage field or a second approver for expensive repairs, she describes that too. The drivers use it without a license charge.

All three can produce a good inspection app. The differences are who can build it, how long it takes them, and what each driver costs every month for as long as the app is in use. For a company that will build ten or twenty tools over the next two years, those differences add up to the real decision.

How to choose: a checklist

1. Start with your ecosystem. Google Workspace points to AppSheet; Microsoft 365 points to Power Apps.
2. Check what you already own. AppSheet Core may already be in your Workspace plan.
3. Count every person who will open an app, including guests and contractors. Multiply by the per-user price.
4. Decide if you need enterprise sign-in or governance. On AppSheet, that means Enterprise Plus for every user.
5. Name your builder. If it is one person, plan for the backlog. If it is many people who do not use editors, consider describing instead of configuring.
6. Review default sharing settings on whichever you pick, and write down who checks them.
7. Run one real workflow end to end before you roll out to the company.

The third option: describe the tool instead of configuring it

Both AppSheet and Power Apps make building easier than code. A business AI platform goes a step further: the people who know the work describe it in plain words, and the platform builds the tool. That changes two things at once. More people can build, because nobody has to learn an editor. And the bill can follow building instead of headcount.

It is worth being clear about what to look for, because "AI" now appears on almost every product page. The questions that matter are practical: can the person who knows the work build the tool without help, does the platform check the result for quality and security before anyone relies on it, are apps private to your company by default, and does rolling a tool out to the whole crew cost anything?

How FORGE handles it

FORGE lets your people build by describing the work. A panel of top AI models plans each tool, a dedicated AI crew builds it, and every piece is checked for quality and security before it is saved. The tool is checked at every step, so your office manager gets a working app, not a set of settings to get right. Most teams have their first real tool the same day, on web, mobile or desktop.

Every app lives inside your company and is private from the start. Access is invite-only, with owner, admin, builder and app user roles, and FORGE keeps a complete record of who did what.

Pricing follows the people who build. A builder seat is $49 a month with 3 builds included. A change is a small fraction of a build and only counts when something changes. Packs of 10 builds cost $150, from a company pool or per seat. Everyone who only uses the apps is free, including the field crew and the part-timers. A build FORGE fails is free, owners get alerts at 80 and 100 percent, admins can cap pack use, and nothing ever bills by itself.

Moving your internal tools to FORGE leaves your email, files and calendars exactly where they are. Our team onboards yours, starting with a workflow workshop that turns the work costing you the most time into your first tool. See pricing, how it works, or talk to us.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. AppSheet pricing
2. Microsoft Power Apps pricing
3. Microsoft Learn: pay-as-you-go meters
4. Microsoft Learn: pricing and billing SKUs
5. UpGuard: Power Apps portals exposure
6. PagerDuty: shadow AI workplace survey 2026
7. Gallup: AI use at work indicator